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A bowl of mentsuyu sauce with noodles.
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Quick Mentsuyu Recipe (Cold Soba Noodle Sauce)

This Mentsuyu Recipe (Cold Soba Noodle Sauce) is ready in minutes! Made from soy sauce, mirin, sake and dashi powder, it's a super refreshing dipping sauce for a hot summer's day.
Course Condiment, Lunch
Cuisine Japanese
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Servings 2 people
Calories 833kcal
Cost $10

Ingredients

Optional garnish:

Instructions

For the sauce:

  • Stir together your soy sauce, mirin, sake or rice wine and dashi powder in a saucepan and gently bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.
    3 tbsp soy sauce, 3 tbsp mirin, 2 tbsp cooking sake, 1 tsp dashi powder
  • Take it off the heat and set aside to cool completely before use.
  • Optional: Garnish with a sprinkling of aonori powder or thinly sliced nori for extra flavour.
    1-2 tsp seaweed flakes / aonori

For the noodles:

  • If you’re ready to eat, go ahead and bring a medium pot of water to the boil, then add in your soba noodles. Cook according to packet directions (usually around 3 mins or so), then drain and remove from the heat.
    200 g soba noodles
  • For the most refreshing experience, allow your noodles to cool completely before serving. You might like to run them under cold water to speed this up, or pop them in the fridge for 10 mins or so before serving so they cool down more quickly.

Notes

  • Mirin - For every 1tbsp of mirin, you can substitute with 1tbsp water + 1 tsp sugar.
  • Dashi Stock Powder - The best substitutes for this are either chicken or vegetable stock. The flavour won't be the same, but they will still add an extra depth that you wouldn't get if you omit the stock powder all together.
  • Flavour Intensity - Mentsuyu sauce can be quite strong, so you might like to add extra water to dilute the flavour and make it more like a soup if you prefer.
  • Optional Garnishes - We love sprinkling aonori (seaweed powder) and shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven spice chilli powder) as a garnish over our sauce. They add an extra depth of flavour and colour to your bowl, but it’s not essential.
  • Noodles - To stop your noodles from drying out (and add in a little extra deliciousness), stir a tsp of sesame oil through your noodles they start to cool down

Nutrition

Calories: 833kcal | Carbohydrates: 178g | Protein: 35g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 4996mg | Potassium: 681mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 84IU | Calcium: 160mg | Iron: 9mg